Introduction

Guide to the East Neuk of Fife by D Hay Fleming

Few districts in the country present a greater number of
attractions to summer visitors than that which stretches along the shore of the
Forth, from Fifeness to Leven, and which is known as the East Neuk of
Fife. The bracing sea-breezes, the
clear, blue waves, the flat, sandy beaches, the wild and precipitous cliffs,
the remarkable caves, the golfing-links, the fine old churches, the quaint old
towns, the ruined castles, the delightful dens, the curious antiquities, the
historical associations, the romantic tradi-tions, the beautiful landscape, the
magnificent views, the pleasant drives and walks and rides may all be enjoyed
leisurely in this quiet, easy-going corner, where even the trains move
deliberately, and where comfortable lodgings can easily be had at very moderate
prices. Those who can only live in a perpetual round of gaiety had better avoid
the East Neuk; but those who wish to recuperate their jaded energies, and to
spend their time in a rational and pleasant manner can hardly find better
summer-quarters. It must not be supposed, however, that this is a place of
indolence and stagnation. As the following pages testify, the fishing industry
has been vigorously prosecuted here for centuries; and the farmers have long
led the van in agricultural progress. Nor are the little towns without their
own share of commerce. An inquisitive stranger, perceiving that there were two
telegraph wires leading to Upper
Largo, ventured to ask at a cautious-looking tradesman - " Would one wire
not be sufficient for the wants of the village ?" "Na !" was the dignified
answer, "the traid o' Largo is no that sma'!"

In Billings' Baronial and Ecclesiastical
Antiquities of Scotland, it is well said, that - "The south coast of
Fife, bordering on the Firth of Forth,
is dotted with curious brown rusty-looking villages, of a character quite
distinct from those of any other part of Scotland, and perhaps of Europe. They
are almost all corporations, of an early date in Scottish history, and some of
them are royal burghs. They have stood nearly unchanged for centuries, as if
the tide of improvement had swept away in some other direction; and thus they
present in their uneven angular streets, their high roofs, and crow-stepped
gables, flanked by occasional turrets, a pretty accurate representation of the
corporate towns of our ancestors." Even in the latter end of the nineteenth
century, these quaint old towns preserve their distinctive features, although
sanitary science has done much to increase their amenities.

It is to be earnestly hoped that the tide of improvement, which has
now set in, may not render them commonplace and tame. Education has swept away
much of the superstition which long lingered here, and of which traces still
remain. In the chapter on Pittenweem, the tragic tale
of a witch will be found. But superstition of a still more foolish, though
happily of a less dangerous kind, long prevailed. Many curious stories are told
which shew the dread with which fisher-folk were wont to regard swine. A
strange incident of this kind is related in Howell's Life
of Selkirk. But,
instead of quoting one which rebounds so little to the credit of
Largo, it may be better to
recall another, which has been preserved by Dean Ramsay, and which is more
vaguely said to have occurred in a fishing village on the east coast of
Fife. A minister of one of these
villages, having mentioned to a clerical friend that if a swine crossed the
path of his people, when they were about to go to sea, they considered it so
unlucky an omen that they would not venture off, and finding him rather
incredulous on the subject, offered to let him test the truth of his statement
by allowing him to preach for him next day. It was arranged that his friend was
to read the chapter relating to the herd of swine, into which the evil spirits
were permitted to enter. "Accordingly, when the first verse was read in which
the unclean beast was mentioned, a slight commotion was observable among the
audience, each one of them putting his or her hand on any near piece of iron -
a nail on the seat or book-board, or to the nails on their shoes. At the
repetition of the word again and again, more commotion was visible, and the
words 'cauld aim' {cold iron}, the antidote to this baneful spell were heard
issuing from various corners of the church. And finally, on his coming over the
hated word again, when the whole herd ran violently down the bank into the sea,
the alarmed parishioners, irritated beyond bounds, rose and all left the church
in bodies."

But, if education and the progress of the times have dispelled
superstition, they have still much local ignorance and indifference to grapple
with. It was with some difficulty that I found out the precise locality of the
Skeith Stone, near Kilrenny.
Among others at whom unsuccessful enquiries were made regarding this venerable
monument of antiquity, an intelligent-looking, middle-aged man looms up before
me. He had lived for twenty years within a mile of that stone, and, apparently,
had never heard of it! Within five hundred yards of Aithernie Castle, in the
parish of Scoonie, I asked its name from four different people, who all seemed
to live in the immediate neighbourhood, but asked in vain! Let us charitably
suppose that such lamentable ignorance is not characteristic of the enlightened
natives of the East Neuk, although specimens are culled from its opposite ends
That this detestable indifference is widespread was lately proved. Government
sent some convalescent soldiers in Egypt up the Nile in a steamer to see the
ruins of an ancient town; but on arriving there the men positively declined to
leave the vessel, until an enraged officer gave the word of command, and
marched them to the spot.

There are other kinds of ignorance, however, which are more dire
and dangerous to antiquities. The farmer's wife, at
Balmerino, who, fifty years ago,
broke up, what was believed to be, the stone-coffin of Queen Ermengarde, and
scrubbed her kitchen-floor with it, has many successors. The
Dunfermline mob that
went out to Pitreavie, on a Sabbath last summer, and tore the cists of the
newly-discovered pre-historic burying-ground to pieces was doubtless actuated
by the same dim expectation of discovering hidden treasure, as the fierce
Bedouin is, who spends his shot on the great urns of Petra. The vandalism which
last autumn demolished the old grave-stones in West
Anstruther churchyard was
even more culpable, considering the social position of the perpetrators, and
the parsimony which prompted the outrage. Antiquities are exposed to danger
from still another source, to wit, mistaken zeal. Recently, the effigy of a
knight in chain armour suffered sadly at Ceres, through attention having been
called to it, and a man, in consequence, being ordered to clean it, who
discharged his duty by rubbing it with sand-stone until the delicate
workmanship was irretrievably ruined! The same motive, in a milder form, has
covered with cement the front of the house in which Dr Chalmers was born,
completely changing its outward appearance; but certainly making a better
back-ground for the flaming advertisement of "Singer's Sewing Machines." It is
pleasant to chronicle in this paragraph, that the horrible fire-clay pipes have
been re-moved from the top of St Monans Church. Surely
there is inventive genius enough in Largo to design a better-looking chimney
than that which so disfigures the Parish Church.

Many, who have never seen the East Neuk of
Fife, nor heard of its many
attractions, are familiar with its name through the well-known air which has
been called after it, and to which Sir Alexander Boswell wrote the humorous
song - "Auld gudeman ye're a drucken earle." Allan Ramsay, too, in his sequel
to Christ's Kirk on the Green, says: -

"Now frae East Nuick o' Fife the
dawn Speel'd westlines up the lift, Carles wha heard the cock had
crawn, Begoud to rax and rift;

It is expected that the
Anstruther and
St Andrews Railway will be
finished this autumn. Then the line which branches from the main at Thornton,
and rejoins it at Leuchars,
will be complete. This will open up the East Neuk more thoroughly, as there are
stations at Leven, Lundin-Links, Largo, Kilconquhar,
Elie,
St Monans,
Pittenweem,
Anstruther, and
Crail.
St Andrews will then be
within easy reach for a day's excursion by rail as well as road. The "Edinburgh
Castle," which was launched last month, is intended to make several of these
coast towns more accessible in the summer months, and it will doubtless be
largely patronised, as it is a handsome steamer, and elegantly fitted up.